Paper 5: Castillo Aguas et al.

The abundance and distribution of flamingos in Venezuela have been the main parameters chosen to measure their populations throughout the country, however some aspects of their reproductive biology are still unknown. To cover these aspects, more information is required, which can be obtained by taking into account the most important nesting site of flamingos in the country. In this study the nests were counted directly. Then to an estimation of 100 nests, measurements of the internal diameter, external diameter and height were taken. As a result, 8335 active and 1724 inactive nests were recorded, distributed over an area of ​​29700 m2, with a density of 0.3 n/m2. In addition, it was calculated that the average internal diameter of the nests was 23.62 cm, the external diameter was 31.96 cm, with an average height of 39.5 cm. From these data it can be expressed that one of the possible causes of decrease in the number of nests compared to these data reported previously, is that the refuge has been affected in recent years by periods of drought.